Less than a year after returning to Middlesbrough Tony Mowbray has taken the Teesiders to the top of The Championship.
A 1-0 win away to Crystal Palace did the trick while Brighton were losing 1-0 away to Leicester City.
Scott McDonald and Barry Robson were in Mowbray’s starting selection with Stephen McManus appearing for the last ten minutes after being injured last week.
Amazingly today’s win maintained ‘Boro’s 100% record away from home with 12 of their 15 points picked up away from home with Marvin Emnes netting the only goal of the game.
Mowbray’s Celtic reign will forver be associated with attempts to introduce a Barcelona style of play but it seems that the return to the north east has brought about a much more pragmatic approach although he continues to take questionable refereeing decisions on the chin!.
After the game Mowbray said: “I didn’t think it would be an expansive match with load of goals in it, to score against Palace is a difficult thing to do.
“We can talk about the quality of the commitment today, we’re a team that is working hard for each other.
“The quality and the grit of the side was shown today, but we’ve won more comfortably in the past than we have today.
“For the sending off (of Joe Bennett) I remember the days when you could tackle but that is no criticism of the official. He made some great decisions, even though we can all be frustrated on the sidelines.”
In the Premiership Stevie Kean and Paul Lambert enjoyed their first league wins of the season.
Kean had to endure a fans march and protest before the home game with Arsenal but after getting the better of Arsene Wenger the former Celtic reserve player was entitled to his post-match delight.
He said: “The most important thing is 99% of the fans didn’t demonstrate and hopefully even the 1% that did will go home happy.
“I don’t mean to be bullish but I can only reiterate the backing I have had from the owners and the players.
“You don’t play like that if you have any type of split or division in the dressing room. We feel the criticism we have had has been a little bit unfair.”
Kean started the season as the bookies favourite to be the first manager sacked but increasingly the pressure is on Wenger with Arsenal picking up just four points from their first five games of the season.
The Gunnars boss said: ““It is terrible, it is just not good enough. Of course we are very frustrated, the spirit in the team is quite willing but if you look at the number of goals we have conceded that is not good enough.
“You cannot come here and concede four goals the way we did today.”
At the Reebok Stadium Lambert got the better of Owen Coyle with first half goals from Anthony Pilkington and Bradley Johnson paving the way for a 2-1 win.
Lambert said: “I’ve never had a problem with confidence. They seem to bounce back whether they draw or get beaten, and that is testament to the way they played today.
“I thought we were really comfortable up to the penalty, then Bolton threw everything at us.
“That put us on the back foot for five or 10 minutes but we fought through.”
In the Scottish First Division Jackie McNamara enjoyed his best win of the season as Partick Thistle beat Ayr United 4-0 with former Celtic youth team defender Stephen O’Donnell playing for the final half hour of the match.
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